Bevin was attacking throughout the week-long race, and moved into the lead with a bold attack with just under 30 kilometres to go on Stage 7 alongside Vine and Nicholas Edet (Cofidis). There wasn’t expected to be a big upheaval in the overall on the final day’s racing, but torrential rain and slippery roads saw the race neutralised after several riders crashed.
“Everyone is a little bit disappointed about cancelling the stage: it would have been great to race through such a beautiful city, but it was an important decision to make for the safety of the riders.”
“I don’t [think I] have ever seen roads so slippery. It’s just unfortunate we suddenly got so much rain on the city roads. It made the conditions unraceable. The bunch was united and the feeling that there was no safe way to race. Once we communicated with the commissaires, it was clear that we had to neutralise the stage.”
The cancellation of the race saw Bevin confirmed as the winner, 20 seconds ahead of Vine, with Stage 4 winner Eduardo Sepuvelda (Drone Hopper-Androni Giacattoli) 40 seconds behind in third.
“Overall, the Tour of Turkey was a really enjoyable race," Bevin said. "I’ll take some great memories from here. I’ve had a lot of second places in my career, so to take a stage win yesterday and the GC today is really nice.”
“I am proud to be this year’s winner of the Tour of Turkey.”
Jay Vine made it two years running finishing second in the race, saying on social media, "Tour of Turkey will always be a special race for me being my first race as a professional back in 2021, I was hoping to go one step higher than last year, but it's silver in GC."
